IT'S NOT THE GHOST GUNS STUPID, IT'S THE SHOOTER

Youth violence needs more than federal crackdown on ‘ghost guns’

Post Editorial Board

 

New York PPost 

April 11, 2022

 

 

                                                                    Angellyh Yambo 

Jeremiah Ryan, who allegedly killed Yambo, was reportedly carrying guns for gangs since he was 12 years old.

 

Liberal leaders such as President Biden have found a convenient scapegoat for kids killing kids in New York City: ghost guns.

Yes, Angellyh Yamb’s killer allegedly used a gun put together with parts ordered off the Internet. But cracking down on those untraceable weapons means nothing if the people who use them don’t face serious punishments. 

We’re all for the federal crackdown announced Monday. But guns, ghost or not, are only tools of violence: New York, and the nation, must get tougher on those who carry and use them.

In this case, allegedly Jeremiah Ryan, 17. 

The Bronx teen, law enforcement sources told The Post, has been known to police for years, and posed with guns online since he was 12, aiding older gangbangers by carrying weapons “because they knew he wouldn’t be held accountable for his actions.”

He wasn’t held accountable, and now a girl who’d just turned 16 is dead. 

So Sen. Chuck Schumer can’t just hold another Sunday press conference on a tangential issue, or President Joe Biden merely announce some executive actions, and be done with it. Nor can legislators in Albany get away with trivial toughening of New York’s laws.

Twelve-year-olds who turn to working as gophers for gangsters and end up as killers in their late teens didn’t get that way because of ghost guns. They got that way because of widespread social dysfunction, exacerbated by laws that teach all the wrong lessons. 

 

The ghost gun allegedly used to kill Yambo

President Biden holding up a ghost gun at a press conference for executive actions to crack down on the illegal firearms

 

Some of this is old. Poverty, family instability and a broken school system can leave kids growing without being taught right from wrong, let alone basic self-restraint. By all means, let us address this with better social services, stronger schools, even “violence interrupters.”

But some of it is new — namely New York’s disastrous criminal-justice “reforms.” Under those laws, anyone under 18 caught carrying a loaded weapon is usually tried in Family Court, and even if found guilty winds up in a program, not prison — not even a juvenile prison. Even being tried as an adult, possession carries just a 3½-year minimum sentence.

And the lame concessions Gov. Kathy Hochul won in her budget don’t fundamentally change that. Heck, there’s still a chance Ryan may still wind up being tried in Family Court.

No: Offenders who pose a danger to the community — including kids who carry illegal guns, let alone those who fire them — need to know they’ll do hard time if caught. Mercy might be appropriate in some cases, but it can’t be the rule.

Juveniles must face being taken off the street to a juvenile facility, to break the cycle of violence. And older suspects must face harsher penalties for carrying illegal guns. Biden’s crackdown only has bite if the people carrying these guns are sent away for five years, adult in prison or kid in juvie, no parole. For carrying in commission of a crime, 10 years.

Finding excuses for teens toting weapons, looking for ways to forgive them and ignore them, only will make this worse. And it will only mean a lot more deaths like Angellyh’s.